1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns improvements to electrical connector casings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The invention is directed to connector casings formed by a female member adapted to receive a male member, one of the members containing male or female electrical connection members and the other corresponding members to be connected.
Various systems have been designed to ensure that the two casing members are perfectly coupled together so that the electrical connections are made.
One of these known systems uses the "swallower" technique whereby when the two casing members are partially inserted one within the other the male casing member is automatically drawn fully into the female casing member.
The present invention is directed to a system of this type which is reliable in operation, of acceptable unit cost and practical to use.
Japanese patent n.degree. 5 841 745 describes an electrical connector provided with a system of this type.
In this Japanese patent the male casing member includes an elastic bar which tilts from the end adapted to be inserted into the female casing member and which includes, partway along its length, an abutment adapted to cooperate with a projection on said casing member.
This kind of implementation has drawbacks.
To be effective, when the abutment is retracted to insert the male casing member into the female casing member, it is necessary to overcome a hard spot after which the system operates automatically.
In the Japanese patent, when pressure is applied to the elastic bar the abutment is retracted and there is no indication of the insertion length from which the system operates.
To be sure that the male connection members are perfectly inserted in the female connection members said male connection members must have a certain length and it is therefore indispensable that insertion of the male casing member into the female casing member represents a relatively long travel. If the system is required to operate over virtually all of this travel, the reaction force of the elastic bar must be high and the surfaces in contact of the abutment and the projection must be as small as possible.
In the implementation described in the Japanese patent the travel is necessarily small and the reaction force of the elastic bar is low so that the dimensions of the casing are small.
One object of the present invention is to overcome these various drawbacks.